SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The territorial government is two years into a 10-year examination of the way it delivers education.
Mackynnen MacDonald-Taylor, Datonaze Paulette, Nuvvija Tulugarjuk and Lexine Desjarlais conduct an experiment as part of an inquiry unit in their split Grade 1 and 2 class at Joseph Burr Tyrrell Elementary School, in Fort Smith. - Photo courtesy of Steven Lee |
The main goal of this project, dubbed the Education Renewal and Innovation Initiative (ERI), is to raise student test scores. Currently, NWT students fall 20 to 50 per cent below the Canadian average.
"If you want to really sort of try to grab it, take every aspect of education and critically ask, 'Is it serving our teachers and our students and the NWT generally, and is it serving them well?'" said John Stewart, director of school and instructional services for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE).
"If you look at graduation rates we would be substantially below the Canadian average, and ... in small communities it's even more pronounced than it is in Yellowknife."
Curtis Brown, superintendent for the South Slave Divisional Education Council, said ERI has already instigated proposals to launch 50 different projects over the next decade and about 19 of them are underway. He expressed cautious optimism for the initiative but said if the programs aren't properly funded, community school districts won't be able to actualize the goals set out.
'Complex' funding model for ERI programming
Brown pointed to junior kindergarten as an example. When the GNWT launched the new grade for four-year-olds in 2014, he said educators in the South Slave thought it was a good idea, but decided against implementing it because the government didn't provide funding to make it happen.
"There's a good foundation for ERI to be really successful, but quite frankly if it's implemented like junior kindergarten was, it's probably not going to be that successful," he said.
ECE spokesperson Jacqueline McKinnon said she couldn't offer a straight answer for how prospective ERI programming would be funded, pointing to the complexity of their implementation.
Terry Brookes, trustee for Yellowknife Education District 1, said the government hadn't found funding when the initiative was launched.
"I was at a town hall meeting last year, reading all the brochures and reading down to the bottom. They said 'We'll look for funding for this,'" he said.
"They don't have a plan. They don't have any money. You have to have the facilities, you have to have the people and you have to have the money. If you don't have one of the points of the triangle then you don't have the structure."
Brown said the GNWT did provide money to launch Do'adaeze, a leadership and resiliency program that Diamond Jenness School in Hay River and Chief Sunrise Education Centre, on the Hay River Reserve, have applied for. He said a series of pilot projects have also been launched.
"The hope is there. They're trying to find out if is there a way we can provide greater course options to students in outlying communities," he said.
